Pellegrini, who substituted Arnautovic against his will after only 20 minutes in Saturday’s FA Cup win over Birmingham, had earlier shrugged off the speculation.

“Those are all rumours,” Pellegrini said. “We know that we have a very good player in Marko, a lot of clubs may want him to play for them.

“I don’t want to talk about things that might happen. Marko in this moment is a player of our team. Players of his quality and other players like Declan Rice, Felipe Anderson, other clubs will want them, but that is one thing. I don’t think they will go.

“I want to keep him, of course, but you never know what might happen in the future.”

Ipsoregulated

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